Thursday, April 29, 2004
(that's supposed to mean w/o laptop)
So I got my mac back (attack!) today. woohoo. Gotta love speedy Airborn Express. I wasn't home for most of the day, so it basically got turned on and then put to sleep. But the good news is, is that it woke up like a charm! woohoo!! (for those of you just tuning in, it had some issues with that. horrible annoying crashing issues to be exact)
So I finally got home tonite and as I was checking my email a strike of panic hit me... am I really going to go to Coachella all weekend without my laptop? With no access to email? I mean really - if I took it - I atleast could update my concert calendar on the roadtrip down! (super time efficient woman says: never waste a moment that you could be being productive!!)
But really I guess I don't need it. (panic) I mean, I'll be back before I know it and I'm really not missing anything right? (don't make fun of me, I know I have a problem :)
Funny how being on the computer is *such* an engrained pattern for me. I'm sure I'll live!!!!!
Sh*t I'll be having WAAAAAAAY too much fun to even think about it. And knowing California geeks, they'll probably be more than one laptop and/or internet station where I'm going. So it's really no big deal :)
Ok, that's all for now. I've got to get OFF my computer and go pack now. Bye!
Ok, I sent out an orkut invite to people like 2 months ago, and somehow *I* just got the invite, from myself, TO: "Willster Mggee"
Which might sound funny, but I actually did have my email set up as that name before, however it was spelt "willster mggeeeeeeeeee" ;) SO, it's just kinda creepy that all of a sudden I'm getting an email from myself and to myself, but with a different spelling than I would ever have spelt it. hmmm....
update: and no, I'm not listed in my own list of invitees... but I am curious to know if they received this invite a 2nd time too. weird.
So if anyone else got my invite again, please note I didn't press the button!!! I hate it when the internet gets a mind of it's own. kinda like how I get quite a few returned mail's from spammers using my address to spend their dirty spam. grr. I need to change my email address.
wooohoo!! the iDoc's just emailed to say they're sending my baby macalicious home! wahoo!!
their repair status site is cool, but it sure
could use a little repair itself!
:::
StellaStarr* ROCKED tonite!!!
The Evening were great too!
The Killers were good, but not amazing - I still want their CD though - I think it'd be good, and then maybe they'd be better to me live next time around, but it wasn't making me shake it like I'd want to.
But StellaStarr* was BAD ASS!!!!!!!!! I was shakin it & sweatin and air drumming and singing - I LOVED IT!!! I love his voice, and the drummer ROCKS!!! And the (cute) back up chic/bassist was great and the guitars were great! woohoo!
:::
However I must need sleep cuz I was super irritable. I mean, not with my friends, but to the other people in the crowd. Hmm, maybe I'm just stepping onto the other side: no more misses nice girl and now I'm annoyed with the stupid made up girls who nudge their way in front of me. This one chic tonite was psycho. Talk about horrible communication skills. My elbow *almost* had to teach her a lesson. But I'm there for the show people!! I mean really, aren't we all here to experience a great show? Why you gotta be a beeeeoooootch then, huh? damn. The photographer was super annoyed with her too. Wonder who that guy was, actually - cuz I want some of those photos!
Ok - off to get that beauty sleep that will turn me into Snow White again :)
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Did I tell you I made rice krispy treats last week? It was my first time!! I mean, I may have made them when I was a kid, but I dont even remember. This time it was just me, the butter and marshmellows & a bit ol' pot on the stove. And, they came out great!! But then I didn't wrap em up fast enough that afternoon, so they got a little hard. And so the next couple days whenever I wanted one I had to give it a little 10 second softening in the microwave. haha But I plan to make another batch soon. They're so easy!
Since I work from home, I end up making most all of my meals here. I used to go out to lunch & dinner all the time, compared to now. But I quite like making food at home. I buy a whole bunch and so I have choices, and it just takes a bit to whip something up.
I've even been getting better at actually *cooking*. I'm not much of a cook, I freely admit, but recently I am seeing improvements! I'm getting better at timing everything out so that all the food is ready at the same time, and there's been a few times that I'm downright impressed with how easy it is to make something yummy.
But the thing is - in the last couple weeks I've burnt myself 3 times!!! Literally a little burn on my pinky had just barely healed before I burnt that same pinky on the other side - and then this morning I burnt my thumb!! Crimeny!
It's all from accidently knicking my hand against a hot pan, and the last two have been so quick that they're pretty little... but jeesh - can I stop burning myself already?!?!
This morning I made myself an iced coffee and it was delicious!! But then I went & disgraced cheese lovers of the world and FORGOT to put the tasty cheddar in my mushroom & spinach scramble. What was I thinking?!?!?
I'm totally pumped up this morning because within 48 hours we're hitting the road for
COACHELLA!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
I'm especially psyched to see The Cure, Sahara Hotnights, Trail of the Dead, The Rapture, Le Tigre, Basement Jaxx, Cursive, !!!, Phantom Planet, Erase Errata, Flaming Lips, AIR, THE PIXIES!!!!!!!, StellaStarr* (even though we're seeing them tonite!), Black Keys, Electric Six, Bright Eyes, Pretty Girls Make Graves, I could go on!!! There's SOOOO many KICK ASS bands playing!! GAAAAAWWWWD!!!!
SO ya, I'm freaking out! :) I'm excited for the roadtrip too. We're hoppin in the car with Jem & Tania on Friday for a little roadtrip mayhem - WOOHOO!!!!! I-5 WATCH OUT! And then all weekend we're camping at Cammy's (who you may recall as the hotty pinkalicious in my recent beerfest album) Mom's place, which is apparently really close by. I'm psyched on that to have a safe place for our stuff, and toilets/showers, etc. And they all know how to have a good time, so it's going to be pretty fuN!!
The whole experience is going to be awesome. I'm not sure that I've even BEEN in the desert down there that far either... but holy 100° desert, here we come! I am already looking forward to drinking LOTS OF WATER!!
Bands and beer all day and hanging with awesome friends - this is truly my heaven!!
::::::::
Speaking of bands, I just posted a
random photo album, mostly from a few shows I snapped pics at over the last month or so. None of the photos ever come out that spectacular, as it's always dark & such... but it's cool to have the memory of that show... it brings me back.
Tracey + The Plastics are great, and there's a few photos of her
here. We didn't really dig any of their openers, but Tracey was awesome. She does this thing where she's got these homemade video's playing behind her, and she interacts with these characters that are really her (alter egos of herself?) And it's totally entertaining. She has an awesome voice, too. I really enjoyed her show a ton. If I ever get around to it, I have some video from that show, too.
And how bout this
crazy huge spider!? I get these in my house every once and awhile and their huge. Stay tuned for the Spider Showdown video I'll be posting eventually. It's awesome.
Tonite: StellaStarr* with The Evening and The Killers! woohoo!! I've been waiting for this show for a long time, and am psyched on seeing all 3!
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
I've just finished up the last of 3 Custom Illustrations for my friends Colleen & Joe.
Take a look! And, I have three more Custom Illustration projects on the horizon! Yay!
And yes, I *still* have yet to update my porfolio with all the Web/UI/Flash design projects I've had over the last 8 months! oy! Soon!
Nothing like a Monday night spent with good friends and cold beers, around a picnic table nestled in a green garden in a San Francisco back yard. As the sun goes down, cooling us off from the sweltering heat... some classic tunes play, making us all say "Oh my god, I haven't heard this song in forever"...
update: photo of jane & I at kat's
> update: more photos
here with cutie little Ella baby!
Monday, April 26, 2004
This weekend's March on Washington DC was huge & epic!! It's said to be one of the largest marches EVER. Over 1 million people marched for women's rights!!! I wish I could have been there!! But my friend Paula was there & marched with me in her heart, which I was glad for!
Visit Democracynow.org to read about it & watch a great news segment where you can watch/listen to Whoopi Goldberg's powerful speech, Ashley Judd and more. And there are
photos of the march here.
::: AWARENESS :::
I don't know if you all realize, but we're in DIRE, DIRE straights when it comes to saving women's rights. We're only ONE vote away from them flipping Roe vs Wade back. :( This is SERIOUS. Not to mention, making our idiotic "leaders" realize that it's 2004 and kids are having sex at 12 and younger, women are (sadly) still getting raped and impregnated against their will every single day, and it's extremely important that they WAKE UP and realize where are country is at RIGHT NOW.
Abstinance only education is bullsh*t. Thinking they (the government) can rule over what we can do with our own bodies is bullsh*t. There are WAAAY too many people having kids that shouldn't even be THINKING about having kids! There's a war on CHOICE and we have to win!!! WE HAVE TO!
The ONLY way to help this is to bring the awareness level up, spread the word and have more people fighting for our rights. For our rights, and the rights of women for generations to come.
Reproductive Justice!
Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not very political, but when it comes to making sure EVERYONE young and old is getting the right education and information about safe sex, and saving our rights as women to have choice - I get very passionate!!! If I could give George Bush and John Ashcroft a knuckle sandwich personally, I would!!!!
Please get informed about it. Please sign up & be a part of the
Planned Parenthood Action Network. Please read the
amazing stories and facts on their site. They're doing amazing work, but we still need all the help and awareness we can get!
Thank you for reading! :)
Ok, so I finally cut the cord & shipped off my titanium lover. I had to transfer aaall my files back over to my PC and let me just tell you... it was a PAIN. IN. THE. ARSE.
Ya see, the PC doesn't like all the little mac files. And so constantly in the transfer it would hiccup and instead of just politely skipping that file, it would stop the entire transfer... so then I wouldn't know what still had to be transferred and had to start it all over again!!! grrr.
So I got most of the files I really need to make sure I have... and did a backup of the key stuff on CD... and THEN I remembered I have an external drive I've used on my PC... huzzah! But I knew since it was formatted on the PC, it wouldn't let mac write to it. So I cleared the files off of there and reformatted it on my mac.
First I reformatted it as MS-DOS, as per Manny's advice. But unfortunately that was hiccuping on the mac file types/characters too. So I looked up some stuff online and people were saying it's good to format it as UNIX, and then both the PC and mac can read & write to it.
Well the good news is that my mac files transferred onto there swimmingly, and it's officially a great external drive for my mac. However, my PC can't hop on there at all. WHAT GIVES!?!?!?
I'm close to being a huge geek, but I always fall short & throw my arms in the air. If any of you know what I'm talking about, please pipe in. At this point I don't need to get on the external drive, but I was thinkin it'd be sweet to have both computers share that drive so I could officially consolidate my two computers.
OR if anyone has any tips for how I can make my PC not trip on mac files, that'd be great too.
Cameron, Willo, Jenna & Dee ::
View Beerfest Photo Album
BEERFEST 2004 was soo fuN!! And just so you know, it's all about the children!! It's a fundraiser for local nursery/child care places. Hey! Always happy to support a good cause! :)
Rick's friends are awesome and total professionals when it comes to partyin'. Awww yaaaaa.. here's how it went down:
5pm: About 15 of us started over at Guam's for a little pre-party. But, this is no pre-party where you start drinking, because we knew as soon as we got to Fort Mason we'd have PLENTY of beer to drink. So, instead we had triscuits and cheese and mini-corndogs, water, red bulls and coca-colas... hung out and chatted and even watched a little of the Kill Bill Vol 1 playing in the background.
6pm: LimoVan shows up and we hop on! Let the fun begin. Arriving nice & early in line, we aren't more than maybe 75 people back. (You have to get there early otherwise the line is seriously 2 blocks long.. and that cuts into valuable drinkin time!)
7pm: Doors open, let the beer tasting begin!! Free food, free shwag (like magnets and openers, mints & gum), and the best part: all the FREE and tasty cold beer you can drink. You walk around the hundreds of tables and grab a shot size little cup-o-beer... and then you can save/stack your cups to see how many you've had!
Mixing & mingling about, our huge crew would break up and then find eachother again, each time more buzzed and having the times of our lives. Cameron (aka Pinkalicious) was a HIT! She looked damn sexy all night and we had a couple people ask to get their photos taken with us. haha!
10pm: Many beers and laughs later, we all pile back into the LimoVan. This time it's packed, probably 30 of us or so in there, all tipsy, laughing, singing, smoochin, you name it! :)
We hit the
Luna Lounge where Guam knew 2 different sets of party people there. Rick & I aren't huge fans of the LL and usually find ourselves sitting and talking on the comfy cushioned benches in the bar.
12pm: We lost a lot of our crew at this point, everyone had either gone somewhere else, danced awhile and then left or went home... but after tiring of the LL scene, 5 of us decided to head to my friend Dave's house party. Everybody needs to be having more house parties! They're the best!!
It was great to see Dave & talk to a bunch of strangers in Dave's backyard. I showed off all my free shwag I scored and we told them all about the beer heaven we just came from.
It was an absolute blast and I can't WAIT for Beerfest 2005!!
>>
View Photos
Using Orkut's database, somebody's made a way to view all your connections on a map.
Check mine out. Pretty wild! But look at
Jish's network
map - man that guy is connected! :p
[link from jee]
Speaking of degrees - today was HOT!!! I had to work this afternoon, and my palms were literally almost too sweaty to use the keyboard and mouse! wowie!!
And speaking of hot and sweaty (and in need of a cold beer?), lastnight's
BEERFEST extravaganza was off the hook! We had *SUCH* a blast there, then went to Luna Lounge and then to another party after that. We had a crew of over 20 people and it was sooo fun! Photos will be posted soon.
Thursday, April 22, 2004
I'm returning my Tom Bihn bag. I only used it once and I quickly realized I don't need that heavy duty of a set up. It'd be a different story if I was traveling all the time, or lugging my powerbook to tradeshows, etc. But in reality it's not left my house since it's virgin trip out!
(here's
the post w/ links to all the bags I had considered)
So - I think I'm goin
Sportfolio instead. Much cheaper and much more realistic for my needs. Or, I'm also considering the
Willow Design Slipcase, too. My friend
Matt has that & it's cool to have something that holds your laptop vertically instead. (but I think the sportfolio
looks cooler :)
update: Oooh! Check out the
booq! I might get this one! Thanks
Ian!
Happy Earth Day everyone!
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
I feel like, for the most part, I'm really good at connecting with people. I mean, I love connecting with people actually. But, when we don't connect well or communication lines get fuzzy, I feel it big time.
So lately I've had a few times where I look back on conversation and realize it's gotten awkward. I mean, I feel like if anyone can make a conversation go smoothly it's me, but with these last couple conversations *I'm* the one who makes it awkward! Pull through, Willo! I blame it all on myself.
Granted the other night when it happened it was loud, and I didn't know the person that well, so we haven't mastered our "reading eachothers lips when it's loud" thing yet. But I just felt like saying, "Sorry I misunderstood you there like 3 or 4 times, saying "uh-huh" or trying to say something to sound concerned about some problem that's actually not even happening because I heard you wrong the SECOND time you tried to say it so that I would hear it and it ended up taking like 3 or 4 times until I was like OH! and finally had the RIGHT response. oy! Dumb lines of communication being down!
But amidst my wanting to connect is also a part of me that's having trouble connecting. I mean, even though my mind wants to, my heart says NO!
Like that other night when my lovely friend was trying to tell me something so sweet... she was really spillin it and kinda getting teary eyed even and it was the most wonderful thing ever. We were connecting! Give me more!! But what the hell do I do? I say something STUPID and I felt like I made it awkward. I am totally doing what my ex-boyfriend used to do - make a joke when it hits too close to home. Roll it off, keep it at bay... don't let it in.
:( This makes me sad. I want to let it in. I want to connect and be close and allow myself to feel it. It's so hard to be so acutely aware of my defense mechanisms!!
Even with this "friend" of mine I've been "hanging out with" for the last SEVEN months. I'm scared to feel this love. It's so wonderful in so many ways... and I want to let it in. I mean, some days I revel in it and it's amazing and uplifting and wonderful... and other days I just want to push it away and keep this fortress around my heart strong and independent. I'm totally afraid to love!
And I can't say anything to him, because what's he supposed to say? He can't help me get through it any faster... he's already been so patient and wonderful as it is. It's just about me taking it day by day... one step at a time.
Anyway, I'm sorry I push away. I'm sorry I make jokes just when things get close and REAL. I love every bit of it, I really do.
Thank you for still loving me even though I'm such a social reject lately :)
Check out this
cool site, you can see how the bands you like are related, etc.
However, it's got a major design flaw in that when you first get there it takes some figuring out. So I'll give you a tip: Right under the postmaster email, see that Search box? Type in a band name there and hit Search. Then you'll be rockin & rollin, so to speak.
update: this is suprisingly basic. I think it's just parsing Amazon info. I mean - it's still kinda cool to look at, but it's not telling me anything new. It's fairly mainstream... I entered a few of my favorite bands and it doesn't even have a few of em.
It did however make me realize I should probably pick up a few things. Here's some names I've been hearing about but haven't checked out yet (some the site reminded me of, some not): Jet, Notwist, Muse, Squarepusher (my downstairs neighbors love them), Trans Am, and a few more I'm forgetting (aka too lazy to list out)... always LOTS of new music to discover!
::::
Also - have faith SF music fans, I will update my events calendar soon! (Not that any more than maybe 3 of you look at my events calendar) I've been trying to find a spare moment to do so, and it just *might* happen tomorrow.
Tonite I went & worked out after BAM and sweat my arse off - yay for me!! I finished my book too. woohoo!
I'm also hoping to hit an art show tomorrow night. I don't hit near enough art shows these days!
Check out
this girl's cutie stuff.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Britt Daniel is the lead singer of
Spoon, and lastnight we watched him play a solo performance at the
Hotel Utah.
He is touring solo right now because apparently for the last year or so he's been in Austin writing new songs and he just wanted to get out and start playing some of them. I also heard he likes smaller venues (understandable!), so that's why we were crammed in the Hotel Utah, and there was even an 11pm show too! AND he's playing at Du Nord this week. He said he's really enjoying playing solo... and thank goodness, because just like when we saw him in Austin - he was fantastic.
His new songs are great, and yes more new ones would have been welcome, but hearing him play the Spoon material we all know & love is great, too. And it's of course different with just him, his (beautiful) voice, and his guitar/amp. (oh and the boombox :) He was just awesome. It was really intimate, and his voice is so dreamy - and I want to marry him!!! :)
Oh, and
Rogue Wave's cutie
Gram got up on stage for the first encore song - and surprised us all with a duet!! He's *such* a cutie!! (hech hemm, ladies I think he's single - I'll introduce yoU!) :) I loved watching him up there! :) GO GRAM! I wish I would have thought to take a pic, I was just so entranced. But I think
Jake got one.
I got a few photos & I'll post them when I have time - but right now I'm off for a date with my boy & some friends - and then Kill Bill Vol. 2! wooohoo!!
> update: Photos from the StellaStarr* show start
here.
Ya'll may
remember when I got my new flat screen monitor, that I got a new Dell color printer at the same time. But soon after getting my new Powerbook, I found out even
Gimp-Print couldn't make my Dell printer work with mac. bah!
So no biggie, I decided to just sell it & get a new one that worked w/ both. And conveniently right as I was thinking that, my friend was looking to buy a color printer. Yay, take mine! She gladly did as the price was right (less than I paid for it and it's still practically brand new!) and I was happy to have it given to a friend. (no offense
craigslist, I still love you)
So she sorta needed it in a hurry and I figured I don't really print stuff much, so I let her take it & planned on getting a replacement down the road at some point. But I never realized how many little things I use my printer for! It's only been maybe a week or so - and already I've realized all the silly things, like quickly printing out directions - to more serious things, like printing out the pdf invoice I'm sending and making sure the graphic header doesn't look all pixely when the client prints it out, etc.
So I finally went & bought a new printer today! I *had* to, because I needed to print some documents to mail by 5pm today - and I figured I could have run to a friends house, or to Kinko's - but then decided I just needed to get it overwith.
Anyway - long story short, I just hooked up my new fandango'd printer, and it's pretty nice. It's my first
Epson! It installed just fine & works with both computers. So far, so good!
::::
Speaking of working with both computers, I bought a
KVM Switch too! So as soon as I get a new USB keyboard, I'll be ready to go on using 1 monitor, 1 mouse, 1 keyboard and 1 set of speakers for BOTH of my computers. Cool huh!? I'm excited.
::::
On the mac issues front, I haven't been able to "cut the cord", so to speak, on getting everything transferred back onto my PC in order to ship it off to the mac iDoctor. The last 2 weeks I've been soo busy with client work I simply didn't have time! I did however transfer all the 2nd user stuff back to the first user I'd created (what a pain), so now if I can just make the final step to drag stuff over to the PC, I'll be ready to pop it in that box & ship it off.
OK, enough geek talk. Over & Out.
Now that I have you all in love and up to date with the progress of my
healthy growing tree, I have some bad news. My tree is sick :(
As you can see, somebody thinks my tree is not only beautiful, but quite tasty too. The little bugger!!!!
I noticed a few weeks ago, some pieces on the floor... but never has my tree had bugs this bad! To noticably chewing chunks off! You VISCIOUS LITTLE BUG!! That's MY TREE!!
The top new leaves are still in good shape, so soon I need to apparently take some soap & water to them all one by one and get those little invisible buggers off there.
::::
In other brighter, happier, sweeter news, it's been almost 1 year since I've moved into my lovely little place. And as most of you know - I am absolutely in love with it. Honestly, there's hardly a day that goes by that I don't appreciate my little home.
I have got everything on my list. (well, except a parking spot - but it's not
that bad) I have a beautiful bright and sunny little place (albeit, almost too sunny when I'm trying to sleep in!), hardwood floors, a deck/backyard with trees (and birds that sound like car alarms... when I'm trying to sleep iN!), laundry, great.great neighbors/landlords. There's a coffee shop close that I love - a park, it's quite, residential and yet close to everything. I mean, seriously - it's awesome.
Oh - and I must not forget that I'm so happy the bathroom isn't a shoebox like most places here in SF.
OK - so anyway, it's been almost a year that I moved in. I remember when I first saw this place, I fell in love.
Outside the living room window, there's a beautiful rose bush below, growing up from the neighbors garden. I walk under it when I come and go... and when it's warm inside, I can open the window and can smell the fragrant fresh roses.
Up my stairs there's also a beautiful bush of flowers (I can't remember what they're called) and right now they're so full and in bloom that they make me smile inside every time I walk by.
I feel like my mother describing the way I love the way plants smell. But it's true I've become very appreciative about our lush green earth and I love that I have a little jungle in my backyard.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Today at the gym, after my cardio, I went over to stretch a little before leaving.
As I was doing my stretches I was in front of a mirror, and after coming up from one of my stretches I got a headrush. You know, the kind where you wonder if you should hold onto something just in case? Headrushes are so cool.
My vision began to blur and the world around me slowly starts to fade away. The light starts to dim, you aren't hearing any noise any more... but instead all of a sudden you have this super surreal understanding of reality.
Being in front of the mirror for this today was especially cool. The adreneline of working out pulsing through my veins, the shimmer of sweat on my skin and me all of a sudden coming back to full conciousness, seeing myself standing there. It was like a jolt out of my head and all the thoughts swirling around in my head thinking about everything from relationships, friendships, to-do lists, finances, the weather... they all came to a stop.
And there in that instance, I felt so alive and so happy to be looking at my own face in the mirror. This face, this body and this person within me that is me. I know myself so well... and I listen and take care of myself. And I all of a sudden got a rush of gratitude for feeling so happy to be alive and to be healthy.
As I finished up my stretches I thought of how easy it is to get wrapped up in my brain about little things. And how refreshing it is to have something so simple snap you back into the reality of this physical life. I'm not sure where everything is going in my life, but I sure am enjoying the here and now.
One foot in front of the other and life marches on...
Friday night we were gonna go see
John Vanderslice. I really like his CD's and we caught the last of his set in Austin and I thought he was excellent live - so I was anxious to see him again. But, after going to shows Wed and Thurs, we sorta weren't up for it and figured since he's local, we can catch him another time around.
So, after a nice workout with Rebecca Friday night - I came home, got ready & headed out for dinner with Rick at one of my favorite restaurants in the city:
Emmy's Spaghetti Shack. It was Rick's first time there and he loved it. We had delicious wine, the best spaghetti and meatballs EVER and talked about a trip we have coming up in June (more on that later).
It was nice to just be out, enjoying a nice dinner. And Emmy's kicks ass not just because the food rocks, but they have a sweet DJ spinnin there, great art on the walls, and cute waitresses. What more could you ask for?
We knew of a few things going on, all of the music related in some way, but we just weren't wanting to commit to any major show or anything. So after dinner we strolled down to
The Odeon where one of the things we knew of was happening. My friend Johnny had sent out an email sayin his band
The Dead Hensons were playing there - and after our
mindblowing Cookie Mongoloid experience, we *had* to check out another Sesame Street band. :)
It was great to see Johnny again too. I met him through my dear friend
Justyn, whose now moved away to Nashville and I miss him very much!!! Johnny's got a new girlfriend too, who is totally hot! But she was a little standoffish in away. Might have been because in the first minute I met her I told her I thought she was so cute, but you'd think that'd be a compliment. Justyn said he thought that mighta been why she was weird after that. People are weird! Anyway...
So we say hi to them and proceed to take a seat at the bar and order some drinks. I had to keep my oldie but goodie Tom Collins drink thing goin and it was DELICIOUS.
The Dead Hensons were cool, but we were wishin they'd dressed up a little more :) John was fun to watch up there, and it was all really fun & good - but honestly the guy/lead singer's voice had something to be desired for me. They were still good though! Johnny also plays bass in
Double Funk Crunch.
By this time it was only about midnight, but after 3 glasses of wine and two tom collinszszz, I was feeling quite tipsy! :) So we called it a night & walked home. One of the nice things about partyin in my hood is then it's only a hop skip & a jump away from my house! WOOHOO!
::::::
Saturday was SOO productive, it was awesome. First I headed over to
The Bazaar Cafe and had coffee and bagels with all the girls from my days at Fine Brand Media. 4 of which (count em, FOUR!!) have had babies in the last 2 years... One of them, her second. Holy Baby City!! :) I was so excited to get to see them.. especially because I hadn't even seen two of the lil' newborns!
Gradiva wasn't able to bring her lil' tyke, Jonah, nor Jen her lil' Benny as they're both over 1 yr and a handful... but 3 lil babies were there and they were so precious and squish their cheeks cute. And it was wonderful to reconnect with all the girls again. Quite a unique array of names between us all, too: Gradiva, Jonah, Ava, Mikio and Enzo - cool, huh?
Me and Jen's new baby boy, Enzo
:: update -
photos posted ::
Quite a bit has changed in each of our lives in the last year... Fine Brand basically shut down business as we knew it... and between 1/2 of them having children and the rest of us moving onto new jobs & such, everyone's doing something different now. Rian, Andrea & Mikio are moving to Japan. Jan & Layne have basically morfed what was left of Fine Brand's Web Maintenance into a new company called
Collaborint. And the other girls are full time Momma's with other creative or PT ventures on the side. Change is good :)
Afterwards Rick met me out at
Cheap Pete's and we *finally* got a few of our posters framed. Two of mine were prints I got at the APE show a couple months
back. One is this awesome screenprint by this super creative girl, Daria.. she doesn't do much with computers, otherwise I'd like you to her site! But she had a whole table full of fun screenprinted cards and prints, and more that were really inspiring to me. Here's the print I bought in it's awesome new green mat and framed glory:
The other one I got matted/framed is an
Adrian Tomine print for
Optic Nerve #9 - and the 3rd is a
Metric poster I just got at their show last week. I'll take photos of those two when they're up.
Rick & I had bought awesome
Pretty Girls Make Graves posters at their show a few months back, so he got his matted and framed (I need to get mine matted and hung as well). And we picked up some frames for the Fillmore posters were fast collecting.
Afterwards we went to a lighting store where Rick picked up a new fixture for his flat. And then we headed down to Chestnut St and tried on glasses for Rick, as his were in his jacket that got stolen at Butter a few weeks
back. We found him an awesome pair and we were both thrilled to have gotten all these things crossed off our lists!!
Between all these errands we had about 1.5 hours to head back to our respective houses and get some things put away/check email/etc before we grabbed BBQ stuff and headed over to
Jane's.
Ben Brown is in town, who I met at SXSW. Hilariously, a few days ago I had started reading
a post on Craigslist about a similar experience I had had in Austin about thinking we'd see a secret Pixies show we'd gotten a tip on. And then as I kept reading, I was like, "No way, Lane was the one that told me, too!" And then I see my own name as a part of the post. Turns out Ben wrote it... hahhaaa It was a good recount of our feelings about it all - and fun to read Ben's history with his love for the Pixies. (If that CL post has expired by the time you read this,
it's on Ben's site here)
So the BBQ was fun. We had TASTY cheeseburgers and enjoyed Jane's yummy Thai marinated Ahi she had grilled up - and we got to see a lot of other peeps, too.
After the BBQ and since we'd had a party night on Friday, Rick & I were beat and decided to rent a movie. We rented
21 Grams and snuggled up and watched it in bed with my laptop! I'm so psyched to have that option - Much better than my uncomfortable couch!
21 Grams was good! Different than I expected - but the acting was really excellent and the story was pretty wild and certainly makes you think about how so much can change in an instant in your life. And how it's so wild to trace the circumstances that surround the fate of who comes into your life.
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This morning was full of sleep and then we got up and made some yummy banana waffles!! mmm!!! It was the first time I've made waffles in this new place and it was soo fun - and really yummy!!
I went & worked out, came home & cleaned and here I am now - finally blogging my heart out :)
Now I'm going to try to get some work done and maybe even post a few more pics. Hope you had a nice weekend!
Friday, April 16, 2004
I am psyched. I can hardly believe it! It's Friday!! It's been Friday all day and there's still a few more hours of this glorious day!
What's funny is I'm not even an 8-5'er that longs for the weekends. I actually work most weekends anyway, so what am I so damn excited about? It doesn't even matter! Weekends are fun no matter who you are & what you do with them. Saturday just has a nice ring to it. And even if you are workaholic Willo, you still go out late, sleep in a little... and it's just covered in a little bit more of a relaxing vibe. aww yaaa.
I'm just psyched. I've been workin so hard this week that today I got other stuff done (accounting!) and not even enough of it cuz projects where still pulling here & there. But hey - that's what working over the weekend is for right!? :)
Lastly I would just like to thank God for pickles:
Dear God,
Thank you for creating pickles. And thank you very, very much for creating the humans who invented the lovely brand of Claussen pickles. God Damn are those things good. I mean - Gosh Darn are those good. I mean, they are *really* good. You've almost outdone yourself there. They're just so big and crisp and cold and juicy! AMAZING!!! I had 2 at lunch today. They were THAT good. I took a photo too, but I'll have to post it later cuz I'm off to the gym to exercize my god given bod! woohoo!!
Love,
Willo
:::: update / photos posted sun. 4/18 ::::
YUMMM!!!!
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Just like their URL:
I Love Metric!
I LOVED! this show!!
Emily Haines is the beautiful voice behind this band (who also sings with
Broken Social Scene, too!) and she is AWESOME!!!!
You know how sometimes I get annoyed with the performers? Well nothing this girl could do would annoy me. I loved every little bit of it. She was sweet and innocent and even pulled out some freaky psycho rocker bits too and it was all so great. I got a cool poster, too!
I've been loving
their CD over the last couple weeks. Actually, lemme backtrack: I had checked them out online last fall (when debating going to a show of theirs over Halloween) and then recently Jem gave me the CD (thanks Jem!) and I've been listening to it nonstop. It's really great! I kept even meaning to review it on here. But I'll just tell you - it's super fun. She's got a beautiful, beautiful voice and the songs kinda have this 80's synth, early 90's thing - but with a new wave pop sound to it. It's so fun! I was absolutely delighted to see her perform practically every single one of the songs on the CD - and to have it sound SOO good and be SOO enjoyable to watch live... AWESOME!!!
I had a yummy Tom Collins and the bartender laughed when I said it brought me back to when I used to drink them at 19. HAH! Seriously, when I was living in Boulder, this girl (my drinking buddy at the time and I've now totally forgotten her name - ha!) and I used to go to this same bar, where they never carded me. And since we had a plan of always going 'liquor before beer never fear' every night, we would always start with a Tom Collins or two.
Except! There is one link I always remember that girl with - and that's when we walked out of Catacombs (after I got carded & denied) my friend was ahead of me and I stopped and she was walking to the car, but I wanted to go down the street to The James (which soon after became my favorite bar, and has since closed). But I'm yelling and yelling (Judy? Julie? Kim? Who knows...) but she couldn't hear me and kept walking... but her loss, because guess what happened then?
I stop and turn around... and who's standing there? Bill Murray!
YUP! Bill Murray and this other guy, who I came to learn was like some camera guy on the set of this movie that they were filming there. (The movie name also slips my mind, as I'd already had a few Tom Collins that evening. :)
So what do I do? Friendly, outgoing, 19 year old Willo? I say hello, of course! And ask them if they'd like to join me in heading down to The James? They say yes! woohoo! I put one arm through Bill Murray's and one arm through his friends and off we go!
So we're chatting and walking... and I say "You know, it's just *perfect* that I've met you... because I LOVE to laugh!!" hahaa! At 11:something PM and after their day of being on the set, I think they were pretty psyched to have some lil' thing with crazy silly energy around. They laughed and shortly after we arrived at the James. The bouncer of course didn't even think of asking for my ID - and I'd actually met him once or twice before - so he totally looked at me like, "Why didn't you tell me you know Bill Murray!?"
Mr. Murray buys me and his friend a drink and we headed into the back and his friend and I played some pool. Poor Bill then has to deal with the drunkards of Boulder. It's so funny to see people interact with him. Thing is, as you know from his films - the man has got the DRYEST sense of humor. Meaning, if he says something funny - he's not usually smiling or cracking himself up at all. He's totally straight faced and honestly looks like he's totally depressed. So all the while, people are asking him questions - and he'd maybe reply with like one word answers: "Yes" and they'd bust up: "Bahahhahahhahaaaa"
My new friend (his camera guy, can't remember his name, but he was cute and we *almost* went home together but then smartly decided against it realizing we'd both had too much to drink to make that a sound decision) and I would look at eachother and just shake our heads in disbelief. Not to mention the one drunk girl there who practically had her face in his lap and kept asking over & over "Are you Bill Murray?" Poor guy! But he was very very nice to everyone... and we had a nice time there. :) I got the camera guy's number, but I didn't call him. It was a fun night, though! I wish I had a photo!!
:::
So how smooth was that seque into the Bill Murray story huh? Didn't even notice I wasn't talking about Metric anymore!
So ya, I had a yummy Tom Collins. I think I'm gonna start ordering those more.
Oh & lastnight before the show, when I was at BAM, I picked up this great children's book that I used to have when I was little, but hadn't seen it in YEARS. And looking at it now it is TRIPPY!!!!!!! I'll post an image soon. It's really wild.
OK Bye!
Ok - oy, it's been awhile eh!? JEESHK!
Well, I've been workin my booty off - and then of course going to shows in between :) Working, music, sleeping, eating and workin my booty off some more.
Speaking of working off booty, though - I haven't gotten to the gym all week! I have been on this war path to get all these things crossed off my long list once and for all. The looming have-to's that always come before my want-to's... and as I said before, I'm proud to say I've been doing a great job at getting it all crossed off. Aaah seeing crossed off to-do list items is the best feeling EVER!
So enough of all that. Let's get to the good stuff!!
Man, I've had a ton to say, but I'm sure a lot of it is lost from not writing it down soon enough. So I'll just start ramblin about whats been goin on:
Monday night we went & saw
Triplets of Bellville and it was GREAT!!!!
The animation is AWESOME. All the character's features are really exaggerated and I just loved that. Hilarious pictations of huge, plump ladies stringing along their skinny husbands.. big noses and great flowy movements. If you've seen it - how hilarious was the Maitre d'? I cracked up on him! And the hard core calves on the rider... and the cutie dog, Bruno! The turned up nose of the Mom.. It was all just fantastic.
The story was really awesome, too. I knew it didn't have any dialogue going in, but you hardly even notice it as there's certainly no shortage of noise!! There's music and sound effects and even a semblance of words here and there, but somehow it's not even like real words being spoken. It was awesome.
Rick and I scored a couch and enjoyed wine, salad and yummy pizza.
The Parkway Theatre is really easy to get to from here, especially for a late show - getting over the bridge is a breeze at night. And for all of you who may not know, they have this great thing called the Baby Brigade where new Mom's can go to a movie and take their babies along with them!! So COOL!! If I ever decide* to have kids, I'm so taking advantage of that.
*Right now the decision is leaning heavily to not have kids. :( Which makes me sad, but for some reason it's been something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Between all the scary things that can happen with your babies health, overpopulation, and just how damn insane this world is becoming... everything from the
global warming epidemic (it's
already happening!) to the lying, cheating and stealing**). I'm just not sure it's such a good idea. That and as much as I think I'd be such a good Momma, I just don't think I can bear the fact that someday my kids are just going to think I'm so annoying. The ungrateful little twirps! :p hahaa
I mean, there's also reasons why I want to have kids to. The other 40% or so wants to have something to do in my later years in life... to enjoy raising my family and then have the joys of watching them raise theirs, etc. And just to experience the miracle of having a child and feeling that love and bond. But that just takes me right back to how they're just gonna stab me right in the heart later in life... I don't think I can bear it!!
Anyway - I know I certainly don't have to decide anything now, because my clocks not ticking for at least another 7 years or so.. but all I'm sayin is that right now it's not lookin good. My Mom of course was really sad to hear this. Her potential for having a grandchild just very well may lie with my little sister - who probably has a good 15 years before she has a kid. Luckily my Mom's young :)
** Did anyone see that Hunter S. Thompson quote posted around recently? Something about his outlook on the future (hell in handbasket, basically) but I can't find it now. If you know which one I'm talking about, please give me the link!
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OK - Wednesday night needs a post all it's own.
I was driving across town this morning and found myself behind a
Challenge Butter truck and outloud I exclaimed, "I love you Challenge Butter! I just bought 2 sticks and a new tub of you!" Rick laughed. It's no secret how much I love the butta'. And the chedda'.
Anywhoo...
My Aunt has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Actually, not just - it has been about 2 months ago now... and since then she's gone in for surgery and had the lump removed and she and her husband and 3 young children (and of course all of us in the extended family) have been having to deal with the stark reality of it all.
But my Aunt's been so strong and really amazing. Her story is something all of us can learn from, too. Ya see, she was going in for her regular mammogram's, but they didn't catch it! Thankfully she was worried enough about a certain lump just enough to urge the doctors to take an ultrasound and that's when they found the tumor. So that's her message now... is to be extra careful in your self-exams.. and don't let a mammogram tell you everything's ok, especially if you're concerned about an abnormal lump.
So my Mom's just told me today that she's now having to get a double mastectomy. :( I'm so sad for her... but I just hope that this takes care of it and she can go on living her life cancer free!
Recently my Mom forwarded on
this petition to me tonite - and so I thought I'd post it here for you all. If you can, take a minute to read it (if you read anything, read the 4th paragraph) and sign the petition to show your support!
Thanks and please send your positive thoughts to my Aunt. xoxo
I am Super Productivity Woman! If I had more time I'd draw an illustration of me with a big SP! on my chest as I puff it out looking so proud! :)
But that's the thing. Time! All this super productiveness means I've had little time to do much else - like blog! Aaag!!
Believe you me, I have so much to spill!! I have conversations with my blog in my head for christ sakes. I've got lots to catch up on...
I just have to get this one thing out the door today and I should have a little time this afternoon. I've been on one deadline after another... (and I love it!).
So stay tuned, I'll get my blog on by about 2 or 3pm today. See that? Another deadline.
Thriving and Loving Life,
xoxo
Monday, April 12, 2004
If you're using iTunes with your PC and have an iPod - here's
a passionate rant about iTunes crashing, the (inconvenient) fact you can't get your tunes back OFF your iPod and a link to a
program that will help you!
Oooh Ooh, UPDATE: For Mac OSX peeps, here's your alternative:
Ollie's iPod Extractor. Thanks
Rich!
::::
In other news - I have successfully wrapped 2 deadlines, gotten my taxes out the door to my accountant (I know - finally!!), sent off these other 2 things that were sitting waiting for me to get my arse to the P.O., dropped off dry cleaning, bought my 'zoobie some yummy food and a new mouse - oh my! (he's going nuts) And now I'm crankin on finishing up another site. woohoo! Let's hear it for productivity!!
::::
AND tonite I finally am going to see
Triplets of Bellville! I'm so excited.
And it's a double date - oooOOooohhH! (double date rescheduled to next week, which means we got the couch aaall to ourselves - aawww yaaaa.) We're hittin the
Parkway for a late show. I hope we get a couch so we can snuggle :)
Happy Monday!
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Hope you're all enjoying your Easter Sunday and having
Hip-Hoppity good time!
I myself am trying to clear off the to-do's on my massive list. One being taxes!! oy! But I'm making progress.
Thursday night we hit an awesome show at GAMH. I picked up
Sarah &
Ian and we met Rick, Jem, Tania and a friend of theirs at the venue. A whole crew!
Our pals
Rogue Wave were opening - and as always, they rocked it so good... If not even the most rockin yet... they were totally hittin it hard and I loved it!! Sarah really liked em too - I knew she would. Pat has grown out the tasty chops he had goin on and now it's a full beard. That's ok - I still have fro envy for his awesome Sideshow Bob curly fro. And that Sonya was showin all her rockstar tatoos. She's SUCH a cutie!! And of course
Golden Gram.... I love watching him perform... he always just looks like he's having the BEST time and it radiates such a good vibe into the crowd.
Then I got to finally see
Bart Davenport - and with his full band! Which apparently means I missed some of his more quirky solo interactions (finger waggin' - can't wait to see that!)... but I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to see him again. I love his CD.. it's really quite diverse, with some songs sounding straight out of the 70's. Really beautiful... and he's great live!
Kelley Stoltz is such a character on stage and his music goes beyond his years, it's so rich and wise somehow. I enjoyed his set, especially because he too was playing with a full band, and I'd only see him play a solo set before as well. He's great live - especially after listening to the CD for months now... it all comes together live and honestly blows me away how much I enjoy it. Good stuff.
Overall it was awesome to see these 3 bands play GAMH. It was a relatively small crowd (for the spacious GAMH), but I loved it that way. It felt cozy, like most everyone knew eachother or was friends of the band or friends of friends... it was nice. Sometimes this city is such a small town - I love that about the Bay Area.
I got to see the charming
MeatyJax there, too, and that was nice. The best part was our hug goodbye. Sometimes those bend down to say goodbye hugs can be so bad - but this one was really good. Yay for hugs!
I was soccermom willo drivin the crew home that night - but I was happy to have such a large group of peeps out to enjoy the show!
Thursday, April 08, 2004
I have been taking a lot of photos of the
fuzzy pants, rest assured!! Here's a few until I have the time to get the rest together.
No matter how small the box is, Kazoo is determined to get in it. I laughed so hard when I saw him jump in this one - he barely fits!
(and yes, that's a large stuffed peach. I also have a lemon and grapes :)
Longing to go outside....
Kazoo probably spends atleast 40% (of his awake time) looking out the window to make sure he's not missing something big. There's 3 kitties that live downstairs, so he's sure to keep an eye on them, so they don't come up here & sit on *his* porch.
Ok, so I'm officially gonna start taking lessons to play the drums!
I have to call a few of the teachers who've been offered up to me, but the bottom line is that I'm finally going for it!!!
I'm excited.
What's funny is my long time friend (my e-friend, since we've never met in person, we've only emailed for probably the last 3 years or so)
Johnny P send me this link to a
kick ass drum set on ebay. How did he know? :) I don't think I'll be buying my own set for awhile.. but if I did - look at this one - it's RED!!!
Johnny P has been an inspiration, because he has been teaching himself the drums for a couple years (?) now - and it goes w/o saying he loves watching the drummers in bands just as much as I do. Last Thanksgiving he even sent me
this awesome video with a tour of his studio (and a camio of his kitty, Charlotte is in there, too!). He was kinda making a spoof from a goofy video I'd done of myself where I was filming myself doing a sound check on my Nikon camera.
Anyway - Johnny's awesome - and it'd be sweet to have a house where I could have my own mini lil' studio and jam on the drums on Thanksgiving morning :)
I showed Rick the link to the drum set Johnny emailed me and he was like, "aawww shiit, It's STARTING!"
Rick plays guitar, so we talk "guitar talk" quite a bit - and he's taught me a lot about what the guitarists we see are playing and such. And he's in the market for a new electric guitar, too. So I think he's psyched I'll actually be starting to talk gear talk with him more. That and he'll have lots of new ideas for gifts :) hahaa
Let the fun begin!
Wednesday's are a little tight for me because I have to hurry and finish everything up before 5pm, when I have to leave for
Bamboozled. However, it blows me away that even when I'm in a bad mood or stressed - spending time with the teens out there for a couple hours always puts me in a better mood. Not that I was in a bad mood yesterday - I'm just sayin... it's a part of my week I always look forward to, even though it pinches Wednesday work time.
After lastnight's meeting, like many weeks - I headed off to a show. Lastnight Rick & I went to see
The Raveonettes w/ openers:
Von Iva and
The Hiss.
We had seen the Raveonettes way back in Sept03, right after Rick & I first meet and were still "just friends" :) We didn't have their CD yet, we'd only listened to some MP3's and thought we'd go check em out. They played a rather thin crowd at the Great American (actually people are calling this "the Music Hall" more lately, but it'll always be the Great American to me - or "GAMH". Full name:
Great American Music Hall - aanyway...), and I
remember not being that into them - and instead that was the first night we experienced
StellaStarr*, who stole the show and I fell in love with them!
So, despite not being that impressed with them at the time, I've since had the Raveonette's CD and really have enjoyed it. So, I figured with this show being at a more intimate venue: Bottom of the Hill, and I'd heard a lot of things about The Hiss, so I thought we should hit it.
Von Iva opened, and we made sure we were there - as from the photos on their site, they looked like 4 hot chics in a band. sweet!
The lead singer has a great voice - and serious stage presence as she shakes her booty around in a amateur strip tease kinda way. Moves sometimes quirky and akward, yet somehow sexy and you can't take your eyes off her (wanting to make sure if she trips and falls - you see it first!) hahaa But she had some SERIOUS tatoos making her even more rockstar... one of them on the middle of her back that said IVA - now THATs commitment! :)
So ya, they got the crowd going, the drummer was GREAT! I was inspired to watch her, as I really liked how she got to play during each song... like, not just keepin the beat - but a little bit of everything changin it up. And she's a cute chic! awww yaaa, drumming world here I come! :)
So in summary: They were entertaining. And I think the lead singer has a good voice. If I were her, I'd be in a chic band shakin my shit too. :)
::::
The Hiss came on next and I was thinking they were gonna be really good! I had just heard a song of theirs played on
KEXP earlier yesterday, and have heard their name getting tossed around here & there at SXSW & such.
Unfortunately - for as hard as they were rockin, hardly anyone was moving. Including us. The first song made Rick and I look at eachother and say "this song can end now". And somehow it kept going on and on. One of those songs where the lyrics are the same verse over and over and over. How can they think that is still interesting in the third minute of it? End the damn song already! Instead they sequed into a different song, but you'd hardly be able to tell if it weren't for the fact they finally stopped saying the same verse over and over again.
They didn't have a good stage presence... they weren't engaging the crowd at all, and here they are rockin their asses off up there, but if you looked at the people in the audience, nobody was that into it. Maybe their CD is better, but live - I'm not a fan.
:::
The Raveonettes were good to see again, after knowing all their songs really well now - and due to Rick's talking about her so often, this time I was much more entranced with the lead vox chic, Sharon Fu - who is hot and has a sexy sultry voice that people beg her to say their names - or say ANYTHING to them. :) She's cute and totally rockstar.
Their songs rock, but their vocals are kinda mellow - so it was good to see them again, but it'll probably be the last time. But we had fun and danced a little to them. They're opening for the Strokes at the Warfield tonite - that'll be a good show for them.
AND we saw Ken, their manager who we
met over us all trying to get on the wireless network in our hotel in Austin/SXSW. It was fun to see him in a different state (and the man lives in Paris full time!) so we went &
